Cranmer Primary opens new school building

Cranmer Primary School celebrated the opening of its brand new building this week (12 Jan), Cranmer Court, as part of Merton’s primary school expansion programme.

To mark the occasion, there was an official ribbon cutting ceremony attended by special guest Andy Akinwolere from Blue Peter, Merton Council’s cabinet member for education, Councillor Martin Whelton, director of children, schools and families Yvette Stanley and the school governors.

The new two-tier block will provide 210 extra school places for local children with seven extra classrooms, a new hall, and other ancillary spaces taking the school’s capacity to 630 places. The school also has a nursery on site. Cranmer Court is fully accessible with a lift, which means children with disabilities who cannot manage the stairs, will be able to continue their primary education at Cranmer up until year 6. The building also has a green roof which promotes biodiversity, fits in with the green surroundings, and provides good insulation for the building.

Cranmer Court

Merton’s cabinet member for education, Councillor Martin Whelton, said: “I was delighted to attend the opening of a new, modern building ready to be used by local children and provide an additional 210 places at the school. These innovative buildings are providing superb facilities for our children along with being environmentally friendly. This is part of Merton Council’s £80m investment in expanding outstanding and good schools across the borough to provide an extra 4,400 places by September 2018.”

Headteacher at Cranmer, Ruth Whymark, said: “This has been a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the completion of Cranmer’s new Court building with its world class facilities provided for the children of Cranmer. We are proud to offer our families choice with the size of school community that they wish their child to be educated in and belong to at Cranmer with our two-form or our one-form buildings. Our new building is an ecologically-friendly design; full of light and space with a sedum grass roof.”